FrontBurner

He posted the other day that the way to uncover how Bernie Madoff operated was to find his software developers. Then, being Mark Cuban, he decided to do it himself. His findings are very interesting: Madoff’s market-making platform was created by a company owned by a character named Larry Gusto, who’s had his own problems with fraud.

Ron Chapman is rarin’ to make waves on the airwaves again. The Dallas radio legend is home–with a clean bill of health–after spending a week at UT Southwestern University Medical Center-St. Paul for treatment of a pulmonary embolism. He’s already picked up his duties at Platinum 96.7 where he left off, and is set to be back subbing for Paul Harvey the week of Feb. 9. Harvey’s show is carried locally on WBAP-AM (820).

From: Rogers, Tim
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 3:54 PM
To: edit-all
Subject: Oops!
Importance: High

Dear Folks Who Use Internet E-mail:

Well, gosh darn. Color me embarrassed! By now — if you have a computer or know someone who does and could print out something for you — you have probably already read the e-mail I sent to Wick comparing Eric Celeste to a trained monkey. Not sure how “edit-all” got into the CC field. Could have been my fingers.

Anyway, by way of explanation, I was talking to Wick this morning about whether we could replace Eric Celeste with a trained monkey. Wick said it wouldn’t work. As you can tell, I’m a big proponent of the monkey idea!

There’s a lesson here for all of us. And that lesson is this: computers can be our friends. But they can also be like evil robots designed to embarrass us and get us in trouble with HR.

t-rog

Jeremy Halbreich, the former DMN and American Consolidated Media exec who recently joined the Chicago Sun-Times board, says that despite rumors from the Windy City, he’s not interested in taking over as president of the company. “It’s not what I signed up for,” Halbreich just told Wick Allison, who suddenly forgot how to talk to the Internet and ordered asked me to post this for him.

From: Rogers, Tim
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009, 2:31 PM
To: Allison, Wick
CC: edit-all
Subject: Celeste
Importance: High

Wick:

Here’s some reasoning on why Eric Celeste is different than a trained monkey.

* Salary – Eric makes 65 percent more than the cheapest trained monkey I could find.

* Experience – The monkey has less experience, but I believe that could be overcome with a different typeface and other design elements.

* Body hair – No difference.

* Work output – Eric blogs multiple times daily online (the Internet) on any number of topics. He also blogs offline. Mainly he puts up links to other people’s original work. Or he posts pictures of himself shirtless. The monkey can do this.

* Office presence – Eric sits around and engages Zac in in-depth conversation about arcane NBA matters and possible trade scenarios. The monkey would have a hard time doing this. But Zac can also be entertained by random movie quotes. Interns can do this.

Here’s something else — a trained monkey in the office would make most of the women feel much more at ease.

Get back to me with your thoughts.

“Best Lawyers” voting ends today. Get to it. (You’ll find the button on the left nav bar.)

Got this from our comments, and it’s too good to be buried. Jim Witt, the S-T’s executive editor, pushed the wrong button and sent this memo to all employees. I don’t know who the named recipients are, but I’m betting they are McClatchy bean-counters trying to get rid of the more expensive reporters. No reason for Witt to be embarrassed, though. If I were an employee I’d like to know my editor is fighting to keep the best talent in the building.

Front-paged by the News this morning — along with Chief Kunkle’s frustration at not being able to get rid of bad cops — the story was broken yesterday afternoon by the inimitable Trey Garrison, who wrote the original investigative piece in June on Officer Fernando Perez for D Magazine. The City Council needs to hold City Manager Mary Suhm’s feet to the fire about a system that lets cops like Perez stay on the street.

Since we’re busy trying to ship the March issue, and since someone brought it up the other day, it’s time for an oldie but a (more or less) goodie:

Do you think you could take me in a fight?

Remember: this is not an invitation. It’s an academic exercise crossed with an easy way to rip me apart in the comments (you’re welcome, Dallas). That said, to recap my stats and help you make your decision:

• I am average-ish height/weight.
• My skull is ridiculously solid. The rest of me, less so.
• I have no real formal training.
• We will not be boxing. The only rule, Daniel, is there are no rules.
• My unofficial nickname is Captain Furious. I should probably speak to a therapist, or at the very least, a kindly bartender.

There you go. Let it begin!

Heard this on my way in this morning, and it made for some uncomfortable — but awesome — radio. Quick back story: The Ticket has a long-running feud with Baltimore radio host “Nasty” Nestor Aparicio that has played out over the last several Super Bowl trips. Anyway, Gordon Keith went by “Nasty” Nestor’s setup on radio row this morning, asking (on air) if they could put the past behind them. He was greeted, apparently, with a glare, and then after a moment, “Nasty” Nestor’s hands around his throat. Read a little more here. But don’t read the comments here. UPDATE: And listen here.

KERA is in full membership-drive mode, and all that begging for cash can get a little tedious. But yesterday evening from 4 to 7, it was a “wheels off dance party” with Jeff Whittington and frequent FB commenter Rawlins Gilliland. Gilliland had a story for every person who called in: a cousin from Fort Worth, a girl who was a cheerleader in his high school class (She looked good at the reunion, y’all. But that was after Rawlins had a few margaritas). I’m not sure if enough people called to get the $1,000 matching grant, but Rawlins, you’re a gem. Let’s be friends.